DH 05 Kiss Of The Night (15 page)

His scowl darkened. “Then you real y were screwing with my head.”

“Hardly!” she snapped, offended by his tone and the accusation. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. For al I know, it was
you
messing with
me
.”

Wulf got out of the truck and slammed the door.

Cassandra fol owed suit.

“D’Aria!” he shouted up at the ceiling. “Get your butt down here. Now!” Cassandra was stunned when a light blue mist shimmered beside Wulf and a beautiful young woman appeared. With jet-black hair and pale blue eyes, she looked almost like an angel.

Her face emotionless, D’Aria stared eye to eye with him. “I have been told that that was rude, Wulf. If I had feelings, you would have hurt them.”

“I’m sorry,” he said contritely. “I didn’t mean to be curt, but I needed to ask you something about my dreams.”

D’Aria looked from him to Cassandra and it was then Cassandra understood. This was one of the Dream-Hunters she had read about on the Dream-Hunter.com Web site. Al of the Dream-Hunters possessed black hair and pale eyes. These Greek gods of sleep had once been cursed by Zeus so that none of them were capable of feeling emotions.

They real y were beautiful. Ethereal. And even though D’Aria was solid, there was something about her that was also shimmery. Something that let you know she wasn’t as real as everything else in the room.

Cassandra felt a sudden, almost childish impulse to reach out and touch the dream goddess to see if D’Aria was made of flesh or something else.

“You two met in your dreams?” D’Aria asked Wulf.

Wulf nodded. “Was it real?”

D’Aria cocked her head slightly as she thought about that. Her pale eyes held a faraway, fragile look to them. “If you both recal it, then yes.” Her gaze sharpened as she looked up at Wulf. “But it wasn’t from any of us. Since you are under my care, none of the other Oneroi would have interfered with your dreams without tel ing me.”

“Are you sure?” he asked emphatical y.

“Yes. It’s the one code we are al careful to fol ow. When a Dark-Hunter is given over to one of us to care for, we never trespass without a direct invitation.”

That al too familiar frown creased Wulf’s brow. Cassandra was beginning to wonder if the “real” Wulf was capable of any other expression than that sinister, intense look. “Since I’m under your care, how is it that you didn’t know about the dreams I’ve had with her?”

D’Aria shrugged in a gesture that looked rather awkward for her. It was obvious the shrug was a practiced expression. “You didn’t summon me to your dreams, nor were you hurt or in need of my healing. I don’t spy on your unconscious mind without cause, Wulf. Dreams are private matters and only the evil Skoti go where they’re not invited.”

D’Aria turned to look at her. She held her hand out. “You may touch me, Cassandra.”

“How do you know my name?”

“She knows al about you,” Wulf said. “Dream-Hunters can see right through us.” Cassandra tentatively touched D’Aria’s hand. It was soft and warm. Human. Yet there was a strange electrical field around it that was similar to static electricity, only different. It was oddly soothing.

“We are not so different in this realm,” D’Aria said quietly.

Cassandra withdrew her hand. “But you have no emotions?”

“At times we can, if we have been recently inside a human’s dream. It’s possible to continue to syphon emotions for a brief time.”

“Skoti can syphon for longer periods,” Wulf added. “They’re similar to Daimons that way. Instead of feeding off your soul, the Skoti feed off your emotions.”

“Energy vampires,” Cassandra said.

D’Aria nodded.

Cassandra had read about the Dream-Hunters extensively. Unlike the Dark-Hunters, there was a ton of ancient literature that survived about the Oneroi. The gods of sleep appeared throughout Greek literature, but there was seldom a mention of the evil Skoti who preyed on people while they slept.

Al Cassandra knew about them was that they were highly feared in ancient civilizations. So much so that many ancient humans were afraid to even mention the Skoti by name lest they incur a midnight visit from the sleep demons.

“Would Artemis have done this to us?” Wulf asked D’Aria.

“Why would she?” D’Aria countered.

Wulf shifted slightly. “Artemis seems to be protecting the princess. Could she have sent her into my dreams for that purpose?”

“I suppose most anything is possible.”

Cassandra seized on D’Aria’s words with zeal and a rare glimmer of hope. “Is it possible that I don’t have to die on my next birthday?”

D’Aria’s emotionless gaze held no more promise than her words. “If you are asking me for prophecy, child, that I cannot give you. The future is something each of us must meet on his or her own. What I say now may or may not be truth.”

“But do al half-Apol ites have to die at twenty-seven?” Cassandra asked again, desperate for an answer.

“That, too, is an Oracle question.”

Cassandra closed her eyes in frustration. Al she wanted was some hope. A little guidance.

One more year of life.

Something. But apparently she was asking too much.

“Thank you, D’Aria,” Wulf said, his voice deep and strong.

The Dream-Hunter inclined her head to them, then vanished. There was no trace of her. No sign.

Cassandra looked around the elegant garage of a man who had lived for untold centuries. Then she looked at the smal signet ring she wore on her right hand that her mother had given her just days before she died. A ring that had been handed down through her family since their first ancestor had prematurely crumbled to dust.

Al of a sudden, Cassandra burst out laughing.

Wulf appeared bemused by her humor. “Are you al right?”

“No,” she said, trying to sober. “I think I snapped a wheel at some point tonight. Or at the very least stepped over into the realm of Rod Serling’s
Twilight Zone
.” His frown deepened. “How do you mean?”

“Wel , let’s see…” She looked at her gold Harry Winston watch. “It’s only eleven o’clock and tonight I have gone to a club that seems to be owned by shape-shifting panthers, where a group of vampire hit men and one possible god attacked me. Went home only to be attacked again by said hit men, god, and then a dragon. Had a Dark-Hunter save me. My bodyguard may or may not be in the service of a goddess and now I just met a sleep spirit. Hel of a day, huh?”

For the first time since meeting him in the flesh, she saw a hint of a smile on Wulf’s roguishly handsome face. “Just a typical day in the life from where I’m standing,” he said.

He moved closer to her and examined her neck where Stryker had bitten her. His fingers were warm against her skin. Soothing and gentle. The scent of him fil ed her head and made her wish for a moment where they could go back and just be friends again.

There was very little blood on her shirt. “It looks like it’s closed up already.”

“I know,” she said quietly. There was a coagulating gel in Apol ite saliva, which was why they had to continual y suck for blood once they opened a wound. Otherwise the wound would close before they had a chance to eat. The gel they secreted could also blind humans if an Apol ite spat in their eyes.

She was just grateful that the bite didn’t unite her with Stryker in any way. Only Were-Hunters had that ability.

Wulf stepped back from her and led her into his house. He wasn’t sure why he had been given the task of seeing to her safety, but until Acheron told him otherwise, he would do his duty. Feelings be damned.

As he opened the door, his cel phone rang.

Wulf answered it to find Corbin on the other end. “Hey, did you find Kat?”

“Yeah,” Corbin said. “She told me she only went to take out the garbage and came back to find Cassandra gone.”

He relayed the information to Cassandra, who looked confused by it.

“What do you want me to do with Kat?” he asked Cassandra.

“Can she come here?”

Yeah. When the equator freezes
. He wasn’t about to let Kat near Chris or his home until he knew more about her and her loyalties. “Hey, Bin, can she stay with you?” Cassandra narrowed her green eyes at him with malice. “That’s not what I said.” He held his hand up to silence her. “Yeah, okay. I’l cal you once we get settled.” He hung up.

Cassandra bristled at his high-handed manner. “I don’t like being shushed.”

“Look,” he said, clipping his phone back on his belt. “Until I know more about your friend, I’m not inviting her into my home, where Christopher lives. I don’t mind wagering with my life, but I’l be damned again before I wager with his. Got it?”

Cassandra hesitated as she remembered what he had told her in their dreams about Chris and how much Chris meant to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that. So he lives here too?” He nodded as he turned on a light in the back hal way. To her right was a staircase and on the left was a smal bathroom. Farther down the hal way was the kitchen. Large and airy, it was scrupulously clean and very modern in design.

Wulf hung his keys on a smal rack by the stove. “Make yourself at home. There’s beer, wine, milk, juice, and soda in the fridge.”

He showed her where the glasses and plates were kept above the dishwasher.

They left the kitchen and he turned the lights off before leading her into an open, inviting living room. There were two black leather sofas, a matching armchair, and an ornate silver box of medieval design for a coffee table. One wal held an entertainment center, complete with large-screen TV, stereo, DVD and VHS players, along with every game system known to mankind.

She cocked her head at the sight as she imagined the large, cumbersome Viking warrior playing games. It seemed completely out of character for him and his overly serious attitude. “You play?”

“Sometimes,” he said, his voice low. “Chris plays mostly. I prefer to veg in front of my computer.” She refrained from laughing at the image she had of that. Wulf was far too intense to simply “veg.” Wulf shrugged off his coat and draped it over his couch. Cassandra heard someone coming down the hal way toward the living room.

“Hey, Big Guy, did you see…” Chris’s voice trailed off as he entered the room wearing navy flannel pajama bottoms and a white T-shirt.

His mouth fel open.

“Hi, Chris,” Cassandra said.

Chris didn’t speak for several minutes while he looked back and forth between them.

When he final y spoke, his voice was a cross between aggravation and anger. “No, no, no. This ain’t right. I final y find a woman who’l actual y let me into her place and you bring her home for you?” Chris’s face went pale as if he had another thought. “Oh, please tel me you brought her home for you and not for me. You didn’t pimp me out again, Wulf, did you? I swear I’l stake you in your sleep if you did.”

“Excuse me,” Cassandra said, interrupting Chris’s tirade, which appeared to amuse Wulf. “I happen to be standing right here. Just what kind of woman do you think I am?”

“A very nice one,” Chris said, instantly redeeming himself, “but Wulf is extremely overbearing and tends to bul y people into doing what he wants them to.”

Wulf snorted at that. “Then why can’t I bul y you into procreating?”

“See!” Chris said, raising his hand in triumph. “I’m the only human in history to have a Viking yenta of his very own. God, how I wish my father had been a fertile man.” Cassandra laughed at the image Chris’s words conjured in her mind. “Viking yenta, huh?” Chris let out a disgusted breath. “You’ve no idea…” He paused and then frowned at the two of them. “And why is she here, Wulf?”

“I’m protecting her.”

“From?”

“Daimons.”

“Big bad ones,” Cassandra added.

Chris took that better than she would have imagined. “She knows about us?” Wulf nodded. “She knows pretty much everything.”

“Is that why you were asking about Dark-Hunter.com?” Chris asked Cassandra.

“Yes. I wanted to find Wulf.”

Chris was immediately suspicious.

“It’s okay, Chris,” Wulf explained. “She’l be staying with us a while. You don’t have to hide anything from her.”

“You swear?”

“Yes.”

Chris looked very pleased by that. “So you guys fought some Daimons, huh? Wish I could. Wulf goes nuts if I even pick up a butter knife.”

Cassandra laughed.

“Real y,” Chris said sincerely. “He’s worse than a mother hen. So how many Daimons did you two kil ?”

“None,” Wulf muttered. “These were a lot stronger than the average soul-sucker.”

“Wel , that ought to make you happy,” Chris said to Wulf. “You final y have someone who can fight you until you’re bloody and blue from it.” He turned back toward Cassandra. “Has Wulf explained his little problem to you?”

Cassandra’s eyes widened as she tried to think of what “little” problem Wulf could possible have.

Unconsciously, her gaze dropped to his groin.

“Hey!” Wulf snapped. “That has
never
been my problem. That’s
his
problem.”

“Bul shit!” Chris snapped. “I haven’t got any problems there either. My only problem is
you
yenting at me al the time to go get laid.”

Oh, Cassandra real y didn’t want to go where this conversation was leading. It was way too much information about both men.

“Wel , then, what problem were you talking about?” she asked Chris.

“The fact that if you walk out of the room, by the time you get to the end of the hal way, you won’t remember him.”

“Oh,” she said in understanding. “That.”

“Yeah,
that
.”

“It’s not a problem,” Wulf said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “She remembers me.”

“Ah, man,” Chris said, his face contorted by disgust. “I’ve been making moves on a relative? That’s so sick.”

Wulf rol ed his eyes. “She’s not related to us.”

Chris looked relieved for about half a second, then he looked il again. “Wel , then, that sucks even more. I final y find a woman who doesn’t think I’m a total loser and she’s here for you? What is wrong with this picture?”

Chris paused. The light came back to his face as if he’d had an even better thought. “Oh, wait, what am I saying? If she remembers you, I’m off the hook! Wahoo!” Chris started dancing around the couch.